Clinical nursing competency assessment: a scoping review

Development and psychometric testing of a competency of nursing process questionnaire

Objectives

This study aimed to develop and evaluate a competency of nursing process questionnaire (CNPQ) for registered nurses in Cambodia.

Methods

Guided by the nursing process, an initial questionnaire was generated through focus group discussion, literature review, and the expert consultation. Finally, the validity and reliability of the questionnaire were validated through a questionnaire survey online of 260 registered nurses selected from Complimentary Package Activities 1, 2, 3, and national hospitals from January to February 2022 in five geographic areas of Cambodia.

Results

The content validity index was 1.00. The Cronbach's α coefficient for the whole questionnaire was 0.963, and the range for the five dimensions was 0.963-0.964, which shows that the questions were consistent. The test-retest reliability was 0.769. The exploratory factor analysis led to a list of 24 items that were grouped into five dimensions: assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation. The cumulative variance contribution rate was 70.08%.

Conclusions

The CNPQ developed in this study showed good reliability and validity and can be used to assess the competency of registered nurses by themselves and help nursing managers to develop the relevant policies.

Assessing non-technical skills in undergraduate nursing students: a validation study

OBJECTIVES

Non-technical skills (NTS) are fundamental to the nursing profession to ensure safe, quality care. Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop a new instrument to assess NTS among nursing students: the Non-Technical Skills Student Evaluation (NTS-SE) tool.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted to test the psychometric properties of the tool. A number of 1,087 nursing students were enrolled from five Bachelor Schools of Nursing.

RESULTS

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis suggested the suitability of a two-factor model. The final version of the NTS-SE consisted of 23 items distributed in two domains: cognitive skills and interpersonal skills. For each domain, Cronbach's alpha coefficients were above 0.94. There were significant differences in scores between second- and third-year students (p<0.001) and among the different nursing schools (p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The NTS-SE can be useful when assessing the effect of educational strategies and/or clinical traineeship experiences on the acquisition of NTS.